Name: Brandie Franklin
Profession: Social Services
Natural or Relaxed: Natural
My hair is important to me because it is the 1st thing people see on me. There is no such thing as no/low maintenance with both relaxed and natural hair and women should invest in taking care of their hair. I have thick hair, the type of hair that I never had to wear weave when I had relaxed hair. My hair was relaxed from age 6 until 32. I started going natural in 2010 after a relaxer broke my hair off. I tried wearing weave but I realized it wasn’t for me.
In 2011, I did the big chop and wore a teeny weenie afro, and it was very liberating, but I wanted more variety in hairdos. I started to loc my hair in 2012 because it was more time efficient than spending all day at the beauty shop getting other natural hairstyles. As far as the cost of getting locs done, it’s about the same as getting relaxed or other natural hairstyles. I have been getting way more compliments with my locs than when I had relaxed hair. When women who have been contemplating on going natural, see my locs, it inspires them want to go natural.
